Conrad Johnson vs Audio Research vs BAT vs Cary


Just recently acquired a mint condition Threshold T400 and love its sound. It will soon be time to upgrade my preamp which is currently a Quicksilver Linestage 1. I'm considering within the $2500-$3500 the following - Conrad Johnson Premier LS17, Audio Research LS17, BAT VK-3iX, BAT VK31SE, and Cary SLP98. I know there is a bit of range here, but am interested to see who has done some direct comparisons, and who is pairing with similar solid state amps. Thanks.
terrytam99

Showing 1 response by ckoffend

"Threshold is only 600 ohms. Any CJ, ARC, or Cary run through the RCA inputs will be fine"

I don't think any of the Cary preamps would be a good match based on the impedence issues. The 98 spikes up to 6,800 ohms for its output impedence at 20 Hz. (according to the Stereophile tests).

This is a very low impedence at the Threshold and will make impedence matching very difficult for most preamps. I would do a search as to what others have had success with running their Threshold, particularly questioning the LFE performance. I would automatically be skeptical of anybody saying their bass is great when such an extreme mismatch is so apparently obvious.